The Democracy Alliance, a private network of major progressive and Democratic donors, has dropped a number of prominent organizations, according to people familiar with the group’s decision [...]

Among those who support the creation of a progressive infrastructure, there is heavy debate over whether to fund organizations closely aligned with the Democratic Party or those that operating outside it and pressuring it to move in a more progressive direction.

The groups dropped by the Democracy Alliance tend to be those that work outside the party’s structure. Groups with closer ties to the party, such as the Center for American Progress and Media Matters, retained their status with the Democracy Alliance as favored organizations.

The decision to drop certain groups was delivered to those affected last week. Among the ones axed are Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Foundation; the Civic Engagement Lab, which funds James Rucker’s Color of Change; Melanie Sloan’s Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (known as CREW); Third Way; the Center for Progressive Leadership; the Advancement Project; Democracia; Free Press and Simon Rosenberg’s NDN, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Groups working on issues relating directly to people of color appear to be the most dramatically affected.

A little backstory here. The Democracy Alliance came about as a way to replicate the culture of donating to movement infrastructure on the right. Through a roundabout process, members of the Democracy Alliance come together to hear presentations and support different progressive organizations.

You can see that this has proceeded in the precise opposite way as it has for Republicans. Conservative bigwigs obviously donate to a lot of electoral causes. But groups like the Koch Brothers, the Bradleys, the Scaifes and others always make room for what we colloquially call “wingnut welfare.” Those are the ideological think tanks, the conservative media outlets, the thought matrix that constantly generates conservative ideas and pushes them into the mainstream. Here, the money is being drained from the similar progressive organizations that do that work, and being channeled almost wholly to party-building organizations or groups that support that objective. CAP is a think tank, but it’s also closely allied with the Administration. The outside groups have been pushed to the side.

So this starves funding for actual ideas, the building blocks of any political movement. As Brave New Films’ Robert Greenwald said, “It’s tragic that Democracy Alliance is cutting back on the spectrum of what’s being funded at the very time that the Koch brothers and others have made clear how necessary it is to have a broad range of funding [for] different progressive organizations and institutions.” What’s more, BNF, Color of Change and the other groups losing funding have actually been successful at some level. There isn’t a Glenn Beck Show on Fox News right now largely due to the efforts of Color of Change.

I would argue that de-funding outside groups has been uniquely unhelpful to the progressive movement over the past few years. So here they go again.

22 Responses
to “Democracy Alliance Pulls Support for Organizations that Don’t Play Ball”

“. . .So this starves funding for actual ideas, the building blocks of any political movement. . .”

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I would agree with that observation; however, more succinctly, banishment also insulates the core interest from having to react to or lend a conscientious ear to those progressives who, let’s say, over-specialize.

It may have to do with an over-strategizing core, which over-prioritizes everything, can’t multitask, and fears unto death any single progressive cause could upend the entire apple cart.

If the GOP can tolerate someone farting in the ballroom, why can’t Democracy Alliance do the same?

They don’t want us. Exactly when will Progressives en masse grasp that the Democratic Party despises us? The dribbles we saw from Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama and Robert Gibbs are merely representative of the disdain the Democratic Party establishment feels towards the Left. Yet so many of us cling to the notion that it is only some of the Democrats and that they will come around and we just have to hang in there for one more election and … whatever. It is time for the Left to make a clean and decisive break with the Democratic Party. To me, there are two components of a politically viable Left: working people and the intelligentsia. I think the intelligentsia is ready to declare independence and many individuals have done so already. The Leadership of Organized Labor is probably unwilling to split with the Democratic Party so the Leadership must be either changed or ignored. The larger objective is reaching those working people who are not unionized. A Progressive Third Party — call it the Green Justice Party, for now — would be the perfect vehicle and this presidential election is the perfect time.

There’s something else going on here, because it isn’t all “left of the left” that is being dropped. CREW and Third Way??? I’d call CREW truly Progressive and Third Way is not at all. What is Turd Way doing on that list?

And then we end up with Canada, where the left wing parties split their vote and the Conservative party gets elected with 40%. Face it, there aren’t enough left-wingers in the U.S. to win a national election. There are enough to lose one, though. And if you don’t think that Rockefeller Republican Obama isn’t worse than what the Republicans are offering, listen to their vision on gay marriage, gays in the military, health care, abortion, religion in government, unemployment insurance, food stamps, support for Israel, what to do about Iranian nuclear ambitions, troops in Afghanistan, military spending, etc. The Republicans have moved so far to the right that what used to be the right is now the left.

And then we end up with Canada, where the left wing parties split their vote and the Conservative party gets elected with 40%. Face it, there aren’t enough left-wingers in the U.S. to win a national election. There are enough to lose one, though. And if you don’t think that Rockefeller Republican Obama isn’t worse than what the Republicans are offering, listen to their vision on gay marriage, gays in the military, health care, abortion, religion in government, unemployment insurance, food stamps, support for Israel, what to do about Iranian nuclear ambitions, troops in Afghanistan, military spending, etc. The Republicans have moved so far to the right that what used to be the right is now the left.

Thanks for the response but I see it otherwise. The primary problem in the American political duopoly right now is the Democratic Party, which has no guiding principles and exists merely to absorb the detritus after the GOP periodically overreaches. The Democratic Party has in fact absorbed the core tenets of Conservative philosophy regarding taxation, the free market, deregulation, globalization, anti-unionism, etc. The political duopoly is dysfunctional because the parties are no longer separated by substance. It is actually a political monopoly in truth and only a duopoly in name. Worse, and the core of the problem, is that neither party represents the American People’s interests. So the political duopoly is broken. And nothing of substance can be addressed until the political duopoly is either reformed or superseded and that can only be accomplished by directly challenging the Democratic Party. Supporting the Democratic Party is supporting the status quo, nothing more nor less. I don’t think the status quo is acceptable.

And then we end up with Canada, where the left wing parties split their vote and the Conservative party gets elected with 40%. Face it, there aren’t enough left-wingers in the U.S. to win a national election. There are enough to lose one, though. And if you don’t think that Rockefeller Republican Obama isn’t worse than what the Republicans are offering, listen to their vision on gay marriage, gays in the military, health care, abortion, religion in government, unemployment insurance, food stamps, support for Israel, what to do about Iranian nuclear ambitions, troops in Afghanistan, military spending, etc. The Republicans have moved so far to the right that what used to be the right is now the left.

Thanks for the response but I see it otherwise. The primary problem in the American political duopoly right now is the Democratic Party, which has no guiding principles and exists merely to absorb the detritus after the GOP periodically overreaches. The Democratic Party has in fact absorbed the core tenets of Conservative philosophy regarding taxation, the free market, deregulation, globalization, anti-unionism, etc. The political duopoly is dysfunctional because the parties are no longer separated by substance. It is actually a political monopoly in truth and only a duopoly in name. Worse, and the core of the problem, is that neither party represents the American People’s interests. So the political duopoly is broken. And nothing of substance can be addressed until the political duopoly is either reformed or superseded and that can only be accomplished by directly challenging the Democratic Party. Supporting the Democratic Party is supporting the status quo, nothing more nor less. I don’t think the status quo is acceptable.

Oh and those party structure types have done so well.. fighting ALEC for example. they don’t deserve progressive or rather enlightened people’s support. Screw em and who cares. Its not like we are seeing policy for people.

I remember reading George Lakoff lamenting few years ago that when he offered seminars on the use of linguistics in the political process (the use of metaphors for example), only right wingers would sign up. It seems that democrats and most of the left are still ignorant of the concept of the Overton Window and as long as they do and suppress those on their left the country will keep moving to the right. Soon the tea party will seem ‘leftist’ (insert sarcastic smile).

Haven’t you people figured out that the Democratic Party is a complete FRAUD,a CRAVEN and dangerous institution that has consistently prevaricated during my 50 years of life, far worse so than the GOP.

The GOP proudly tells you upfront what it believes, destructive and evil or not.

The Democrats, supported by bullshit organization such as the Democracy Alliance, tells pretty (and far more pernicious) lies.

Indeed, Barack Obama is the most dangerous type of politician. A conniving, back-stabbing, two-faced coward, a perfect example of the now loathsome Democratic Party. And he is a war criminal… a smug and murderous punk bastard who should have been impeached many times over.

The Democrats are utterly repulsive in their hypocrisy. Glenn Greenwald’s got their number over at Salon.com